The Playful Antiquarian

NPR Goes to Rare Book School

August 8th, 2003

There will be a story about Rare Book School on NPR’s “All Things Considered” this Sunday, August 10th. Jacki Lyden of NPR spent a few days this week exploring RBS, the University of Virginia-based pseudo-summer camp for the rare book crowd (eg. librarians, collectors, library school students, and assorted bibliophiles). The announcement from Terry Belanger, the founding director of RBS, can be found in a number of places (ie. the Exlibris list, SHARP-L, or Book Arts-L).

Sadly, this was the week I was supposed to be at RBS for the well known course, Introduction to Descriptive Bibliography (or DesBib, as RBS alums refer to it). Unfortunately, I am young and poor and had to choose between taking a course at Simmons and making some progress towards an MLS or one week of intense study and rare book fun at RBS. Oh well, I will be there next year, definitely. For now, thanks to NPR, I can experience RBS vicariously but with a full night’s sleep and an additional year to finish the pre-course reading.

Entry Filed under: Rare Book School